I've been doing it for almost a decade now, which is the majority of my post-education life. I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to work at startups, independent companies, big publishers and even create my own indie titles - I know this isn't the case for everyone, and I know when I have a good thing... that, and I can't imagine doing anything else

Even after all of this time, it's genuinely a joy to get up in the morning. There's always the potential to learn or create. I love to dream up ideas then execute on them, often with others to create something totally new from those initial nuggets of thought.

I've met some fantastic people who share the same passion for video games as I have, and getting the chance to work with such people is really something special.

Personally, I'm actually a prematurely 'retired' developer, previously working in comms protocols and telephony signalling. Turned out though, I can't stop being a code-writer and 'retirement' has just released a bit of time, so I now have time to develop the things I enjoy, games/puzzles easily beat comms.

I do a bit of country walking as well, and the occasional afternoon in town downing beer with a few pals who are fellow retirees.

For the main part, games/puzzles dev is turning out to be a lot like working used to be except nobody pays me anymore. Even so, chances of making money in the App Store may be slim, but they are not nil... so I can hope. And even in the absence of sensible income, I can still have fun. And I can talk about it, endlessly boring my pals, on these afternoons in town...!

At first, I started making games (and joining the industry) out of passion. Large part of my education was gearing me towards being a programmer, because I knew programming is how you "make a game" (and also I found out I couldn't draw if my life depended on it).

Now, I've reached the point in life whereby I'm starting to feel "time is running out". Friends around me are moving up, settling down, owns their own homes and car (and I live in a country with the most expensive car ownership in the world, plus at least a quarter million dollars for the cheapest apartment ownership to start a family in). While I'm still "chasing my dream" making games in my day job for a company in an industry where small companies are highly volatile, AND making games in my off hours, playing the App store lottery, instead of out socializing and trying to find myself a life partner, or :shudders: enjoy life.

As I told a buddy of mine, "Now, I don't want to just earn money, I want to earn money making games, better still, earn money from MY games". Unfortunately, unlike numerous others, who hopped into the game industry after leaving a well paid job (with possibly a sustainable amount of savings), I started here at zero, I can't just live off instant noodles and bootstrap my projects, or start my own studio, or even outsource my game's art creations, or even give up my day job just to focus on my own games, I have the obligation of financially taking care of my retiring mother and grade school sister |:Asian:|.

Yet I still want to remain a game developer. Why? Maybe it's passion, maybe I'm just irresponsible to my life, my family, or maybe I just hate myself.

Well, my job doesn't really allow me to be that creative, so making games in my spare time is a great outlet for me.

I doubt I'll ever become a professional developer, or do it full time, but I think I'd go insane without the freedom to go home and make something. Even if it's just making a silly little game about a man trying to get a kebab based on an in joke with a friend.

I've been doing it for almost a decade now, which is the majority of my post-education life. I've been fortunate to have the opportunity to work at startups, independent companies, big publishers and even create my own indie titles - I know this isn't the case for everyone, and I know when I have a good thing... that, and I can't imagine doing anything else

Even after all of this time, it's genuinely a joy to get up in the morning. There's always the potential to learn or create. I love to dream up ideas then execute on them, often with others to create something totally new from those initial nuggets of thought.

I've met some fantastic people who share the same passion for video games as I have, and getting the chance to work with such people is really something special.

Click to expand...

I feel the same way. I didn't intentionally get into games it was supposed to be for a year and then I was going to go back to graphic design/advertising/web. That was 10+ yrs ago. WOW!

It's really a hard job to "create fun" and most people don't get the time/dedication/know how that it takes. I've worked some insane hours in the past to get products out. Also, I've been lucky enough to have worked on some amazing products and with some really talented people.

I helped start a company about 18 months ago with the first programmer, I ever worked with long ago. We just announced our first game, too! This has been one of the hardest undertakings I've ever done, but totally a passion/obsession to keep making it better. Hopefully, the love shows through? Since it's just the 2 of us we have had to wear a lot of hats. Call me crazy but I love doing it and I don't sleep much... and I wouldn't do anything else!

I love creating things. And to now have tools readily available to easily create amazing products that bring myself and others so much joy it's almost hard to not to want to create games. A few years ago I taught myself how to program and discovered Unity. From there it's all history. Sometimes it's tough getting caught up in the business side of things as this is my job now, but it's great to get to work from home and do something I truly enjoy for a living.

I'm hoping one day I can fund a game that gives me the same experience I had from my favorite games growing up : like Mario 64, Final Fantasy 7, Zelda Ocarina, and too many other epic games to name. Striving to create a product that offers that amazing experience is something I work towards every day. Games are a lot of fun to play and now they are even more fun to create.

What I really like is the creation process: starting with an idea about something that could be fun to play and adding stuff as it comes to your mind until at some point you have to force yourself to release the game even though there's still that silly thing that I could add...
I like the fact that at some point, after so many hours of coding and sleepless nights (especially when gamedev is not your day job), the game becomes an extension of me, a sort of avatar... I believe that game making is an art form, and as such a work of art is extremely personal: you can say so much about the author playing at his games (indie games at least).
Then I like the adrenaline rush of the moment when you show it to someone that isn't family or friends, someone that could really tear it apart and say that your game is a total piece of organic material... and maybe he says it's good.
And finally (I must thank TA for that) when someone understands what you meant when you added that silly little detail that you thought no-one would notice... it's really, really awesome.

I think it’s the progression of the whole project: you start with an idea and wonder if you can turn it into something more. You learn to code and eventually get a basic game up and running. Then you wonder if you can make it look prettier, so suddenly you’re learning how to draw and make better artwork. And now that the game plays well and looks cool, you’re getting really excited and begin to add this feature and that feature and that other feature. And then what started as a tiny idea has ballooned into this massive monster that causes you to question whether or not it will ever be finished. And when you actually, finally finish it, you jump out of your chair and scream:

I MUST SHOW THIS TO THE WORLD!!!

It’s a fun process. Until you realize you have to pay developer fees to show your game to the world. Then you go, “Oh, no, this has to make money? Well, surely I can sell enough to cover those fees AND buy a $3.49 pizza afterwards.”

I just made an augmented reality test where I can augment an object rather than a 2D target. I had lots of fun doing it and really that is why I am a developer. I like being able to turn what I imagine into reality (rather than be the frustrated person trying to get other to turn it into reality.